Dimmable LED Lighting Made Easy with

National Semiconductor, Arrow, and Cree

Joseph DeNicholas, Lighting Business Unit Director

White Paper

Introduction
Designers of lighting systems have had a challenging are advantages and disadvantages to both categories of
time dimming every light source technology developed circuits. Isolated solutions tend to be larger and less
beyond the lament-based lamp. Dimming is critical ecient due to the transformer and the likely presence
in many applications because it allows the setting of an optocoupler for output feedback, but may make
of an appropriate and desired level of light as well as passing safety regulations like UL60950 easier by
signicant energy savings. The most common dimming providing inherent protection between the AC mains
control is the phase-cut dimmer, often referred to as and the user. Conversely, non-isolated solutions tend to
the TRIAC dimmer, whether the device in question be smaller and therefore more likely to t into the small
contains an actual TRIAC semiconductor device or not form factor required for bulb-retrot applications, but
(many newer controls do not). Interfacing the phase- then require mechanical isolation via the bulb materials
cut dimmer to compact uorescent and now V BUCK
TP3 V+
LED-based lamps represents a signicant D3
design challenge. The results have not always TP4
BR1 +
been promising; many lamps on the market C7 D9 R6
LED
+

today display a severely limited dimming C2 D8 R8 C10

range or even icker. National Semiconductor, L4 R7 +

C17 R16 C9 V LED
D4
Cree, and Arrow Electronics have teamed up - R4
C12

to deliver a solution that enables ecient,

L3 C15
dimmable solid-state lighting from traditional C1 V+
D10 TP5
LED -
TP10
phase-cut dimmers. V LED -

Q3
D12 R2 L5

LED Driver Board Details C16 R15 Q1

D2 R10
TP14

The solution is demonstrated via a board RT1

D1
L2
C18
that employs National Semiconductors R5 C5

R11
PowerWise LM3445 LED driver to convert a ICOLL
R14
90-135 VRMS AC mains input (wall plug supply) L1

LM3445
to a 350 mADC constant current source in TP11
U1
order to drive high-power Cree white LEDs. F1 1 ASNS BLDR 10

J1 R1
The AC mains may be phase cut or chopped, 2 FLTR1 VCC 9
TP12
using standard wall dimmers commonly found TRIAC
VAC C3
R17
TP15
3 DIM GATE 8 Q2
in residential, commercial, and industrial DIMMER
TP6
TP16

buildings, in order to decrease the light output 4 COFF ISNS 7

of the LEDs. The demonstration unit is enclosed Master-Slave Circuitry

5 FLTR2 GND 6
R3

TP18 TP19
to ensure the user does not inadvertently come C4

into contact with the high voltage present in the C13

R13
R12
circuit, shown in Figure 1. TP7-9
C11

D11
As shown in the diagram, the circuit is non- TP17 C14
Q5
isolated. This implies a direct current path from = Possible No Load or Short

input (AC mains) to output (LEDs). Isolated

solutions typically require what is known as
galvanic isolation using a transformer. There Figure 1. Non-isolated LM3445 LED Driver Circuit
 V+
VBUCK
...to Load
Charge
Figure 2. Two-Stage Valley-Fill Circuit Operation
and construction to pass safety regulations. National
supports isolated and non-isolated solutions using the
LM3445 LED driver in a variety of shapes, sizes, and
power levels, not all of which are currently available for
general distribution.
Power Factor Correction
When energy is drawn from the AC mains wall supply,
it can sometimes be drawn in such a way that it creates
phase shift between the input current and voltage or
even spikes and dips in the input current waveform.
The easiest example would be to put a high-voltage
capacitor directly on the AC mains. Assuming an ideal
device, charge is passing to and from the capacitor as the
incoming voltage charges and discharges the device, but
no real power is being delivered to this load. This is
because the input voltage and current are 90 degrees out
of phase. Power companies dislike this situation because
there is loss in transmission and transformer conversion
of energy even when that energy is being returned to
the grid. A preferable situation is to have 100% of the
energy delivered to be used by the load. The ratio of real to
apparent power is called power factor, and is represented
by a number between zero (no real power delivered,
as in the capacitor example) to one (100% of energy
delivered is consumed by the load, such as a resistor).
Power factor greater than 0.9 is required by Energy Star
for commercial solid-state lighting applications. When
harmonic content in the input voltage is low or zero as
can usually be assumed, power factor is calculated as:
I1
Real Power in Watts 2 x cos ( ) 120 Hz ripple in the LED current. Lastly, because it
PF = =
Apparent Power in V x A 2 I 2n
1 1
I 0 +
n =1 2
The rst term takes into account the harmonic content
in the current caused by discontinuities (spikes and
dips), while the second, cosine-based term takes into
account phase shift between the voltage and current.
Several dierent techniques are currently implemented
to increase power factor in circuits that have inherently
V+
V BUCK
...to Load
Discharge
high harmonic content or phase shift, a process called
Power Factor Correction (PFC). PFC techniques fall
into two main categories, namely, active and passive.
Active PFC uses electronic drive techniques to shape
the input current waveform and lter out transient
spikes and valleys, while passive PFC uses elements like
inductors and capacitors to accomplish the same results.
LM3445-based drive systems can use both active and
passive PFC, and various boards have been developed to
illustrate this. This particular non-isolated design uses a
passive PFC technique called the valley-ll circuit. The
valley-ll circuit and operation are outlined in Figure 2.
When the voltage at the input is greater than the
previous peak voltage divided by the number of valley-
ll stages (the number of capacitors), the load is being
delivered directly from the line. In addition, as a result
of the diode conguration, the capacitors are charging
in series which causes them to divide the voltage by
the number of capacitors in series. When the input
voltage falls below its peak divided by the number of
stages, the capacitors are forced (again, because of the
diode conguration) to supply the load in parallel
during this discharge phase. The hold-up voltage
then is the previous input peak voltage divided by the
number of valley-ll stages. The circuit implemented
on this demonstration platform uses a two-stage valley-
ll circuit. The valley-ll circuit is critical for a number
of reasons. First, it provides PFC because the loads
power is being drawn from the input as often as possible
during the cycle. Second, the capacitors provide energy
storage during parallel discharge so that there is no
forces a majority of the current to be drawn from the
input line, the dimmer switches receive what they need
(current) for icker-free operation.
Phase Dimming with the LM3445 LED Driver
Dimming from phase-cut dimmers has been a challenge
for every non-lament-based lighting technology simply
because phase dimmers expect to see a resistive load such
as that provided by an incandescent or halogen lamp.
Phase-cut dimmers come in two varieties, forward and driven buck regulator. The peak current is measured at
reverse phase, as shown in Figure 3. the ISNS pin and the ripple is held constant in order
to keep the average current constant. The ripple is held
constant via implementation of a pseudo-constant o
time that is inversely proportional to the output voltage,
(a) VLED. This method provides an easy means of keeping
the LED stacks average current constant regardless of
changes in input and output voltage by keeping the
ripple current constant. The reason is inherent in the
basic operating principles of inductors. The following
equation highlights the commonly-known relationship
(b)
between voltage, current, inductance, and time for a
standard inductor. Also shown is the same relationship
with appropriate substitutions to represent the o state of
DELAY any buck regulator. As a simplication, the freewheeling
diodes forward voltage is considered small with respect
to the LED stack voltage.
I IRIPPLE
(c) VL = L x so.... VLED = L x
t tOFF

Assuming inductance (L) is constant, a reasonable

DELAY assumption if core saturation is avoided, one can see
that if tOFF is inversely proportional to VLED, the ripple
current in the inductor will also be constant. A constant
Figure 3. Full-Wave, Forward- and Reverse-Phase Dimmer
Waveforms peak current in conjunction with a constant ripple
delivers the desired result of a constant average current.
Phase dimmers require a bleeder current to allow
the internal timing circuitry to operate properly, and WEBENCH LED Designer
many require additional holding current to maintain Designing LED drivers, especially for phase-dimmable
proper operation throughout the cycle. The LM3445 applications, can be extremely challenging. In order to
LED drivers BLDR pin provides bleeder current, while assist the designer, National has developed a powerful
external resistor R5 provides holding current if it is online design environment called WEBENCH LED
necessary. Other demonstration boards available from Designer which includes a wide variety of Cree LEDs
National include additional circuitry to modulate the that can be designed into a given circuit using electrical
holding current throughout both the dimming range models for the LEDs themselves. A snapshot of the Cree
and the AC 120 Hz cycle for increased eciency. LED selection chart is highlighted in Figure 4.
For a wide dimming range,
the LM3445 LED driver
interprets the conduction
or ring angle of the phase
dimmer and translates it to
an appropriate amount of
LED current for a minimum
100:1 dimming ratio from
maximum to minimum.
Some higher-quality
dimmers may provide an
even higher range, but most
applications do not require
it.
To regulate the LED
current, the LM3445
driver utilizes a low-side-
Figure 4. WEBENCH LED Designer's Cree LED Selection Chart
 Nationals WEBENCH LED Designer can quickly provide a solid base design
from which to work, but there are other aspects of designing for phase dimming
that can complicate a design such as electromagnetic compatibility. Common-
mode and dierential-mode lters commonly used at the input to oine circuitry
can interact with the wide variety of circuit congurations found in forward- and
reverse-phase dimmers. The lter components installed on this demonstration unit
have been tested with a wide variety of both forward- and reverse-phase dimmers,
but adverse interactions with untested dimmers are still possible. Nationals
engineers have extensive experience dealing with these types of issues and can
provide additional information accordingly.

Conclusion
Using the LM3445 LED driver, high-power Cree LEDs, and Nationals WEBENCH
LED Designer online tool, designers can quickly develop phase-dimmable solid-
state lighting systems that are ecient, reliable, and visually pleasing. For additional
information, please visit: www.national.com/led, www.cree.com, or www.arrow.com.

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